neither can the Justice Department. A whole lot of people in both need to be out looking for jobs.Previously, the FBI told the ACLJ that they found no documents. But,
the batch of documents the ACLJ released previously showed FBI employees
who were involved in email threads with DOJ officials.

The ACLJ celebrated the decision on their website,
saying, "While we appreciate that the FBI has ‘reopened' the case file
and is now ‘searching' for documents responsive to our duly submitted
[Freedom of Information Act] request from more than a year ago, it
stretches the bounds of credulity to suggest that the FBI bureaucracy
just discovered that ‘potentially responsive' records ‘may exist' on its
own accord."

The remains of Ming Dynasty Wanli Emperor at the Ming tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and Empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously "denounced" and burned.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Somebody had a link to Reloading Valley a while back, and after looking things over I ordered some 110-grain Hornady .308 bullets and some Nosler 210-grain .338 to try.

It's mostly brass and bullets that were pulled from ammo for whatever reason, and they state in the bullet descriptionThese bullets are
from a pulldown operation, so they will be slightly tarnished and you
may notice light tooling marks from the demil process.When these came in I checked them over; some slight marks on some of them, all in places where I think the jacket would engage the rifling; the .338s had some slightly-mashed noses. I've only had time to load and try a few of the .338s with a known load; they shot well. And the price was damned good, especially considering shipping is included.Take a look, might find some stuff you can use.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

The Harris County District Attorney's office did not return calls from Reason, but county prosecutor Natasha Sinclair told
the Houston TV station KRIV that "no one in this office stands by the
search the way it happened," but she also said the officers' "bad
judgement" might not rise to the level of criminal offense.
BAD JUDGEMENT? That's how you 'excuse' this shit?

Every good cop on that force is going to catch shit for this, and a helluva lot of people are going to say "You want our support? Clean your damned house, and then maybe."

Added: part of the response letter from Harris County:

So they BADLY violated policy(ignore the law for the moment), and are causing your agency a freakin' huge amount of trouble- and will probably cost the taxpayers a fortune unless some judge says "No qualified immunity for you"- and they still have jobs. Great.

...Seattle police said in a statement that three men were
arrested on suspicion of obstruction and assault. Confiscated weapons
included ax handles, 2-by-4s and balloons containing an “unknown liquid
substance,” the statement said.

NBC doesn’t tell us who, exactly, got arrested and carried ax
handles, 2-by-4s and an “unknown liquid substance,” but it was the
“antifa” fascists....

Counter-protesters — including antifa, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Veterans for Peace, Indivisible Seattle, Black Lives Matter, and the Freedom Socialist Party — marched “in solidarity against hate,” specifically against what they called “the bigotry, racism and violence” of the “far-right” organizers. Solidarity Against Hate counter-protesters waved communist flags, yelled “f*ck America,” squirted police with silly-string, and burned the American flag.

Most of the talking heads on TV and print aren't reporters, they're political operatives with bylines, and not to be trusted. At all.

Also: politicians. That slimy bastard McAuliffe, Governor of VA, blamed the ACLU for the crap in Charlottesville. Because "I didn't want to allow THOSE people to speak, but they made me." Which tells you exactly what he defines as 'free speech': "MY thugs get to speak, but not THEIRS." I have my problems with the ACLU, but here they're right: those people had a right to gather, like them(or what they had to say) or not. That bastard also had plenty of time for the cops and NG to prepare in case of trouble, but apparently had them stand back and let things blow up instead. Wonderful guy, isn't he?

On paper-patching, using the Lyman 340-grain hollow-point, yes. Best load I've found with it so far uses A5744 powder, and it shoots the paper-patched bullet better than a bare lubed. So it's definitely on the 'keep using' list.

That bullet over the recommended dose of BH209 was 'meh'. I'll fiddle with it more, but probably stick with the patched bullet over A5744.

I tried the 405-grain Lee flatnose paper-patched, using A5744 and 2f black. With the Accurate, results were ok; nothing wonderful. The loads I tried over black put two close together and the others spread out; I forgot the blow tube that day, and a straw just doesn't cut it. I'm going to try it with BH209 as well, I think a soft patched bullet might work quite well with it.

With the heavy bullet, the 500-grain Lee, I haven't tried patching; it's got such wide grease grooves I don't know how well it'd work. With black, best load has been 68.0 grains of 2f, but- as noted in the past- it seems somewhat inconsistent. With the 209, I first tried the somewhat lower loads, using some folded toilet paper as wads to fill the empty space*. That was 33.0 grains, and tried it with and without the wads(did use a .060 thick wad over the powder, then the tp); results pretty much identical; some vertical stringing, but I'm pretty sure that was me, and horizontally they were very close. After some other questions, and more reading, found that 35.0 grains with that over-powder wad pretty much filled the case below the seated bullet, so tried it; not bad at all.

So that's how it sits for now.

*I have no dacron for filler, so tp it is. Looking around I've found various opinions on using a filler with BH(as usual for any question). When I contacted Western to ask some questions, they said that if you're near/at max recommended loads, filler not needed; if you're much below that, use something.
No, I didn't ask their opinion of tp.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.